BLAG

Good Day,

I've created a base blag-release package. The building of the
source[0] package is also responsible for the blag-release notes
package. I've put the binaries in the 32bit and 64-bit directories respectively.

This package will work with the repo which I've setup, which I hope to
populate soon.

An alpha will be available soon.

[0]ftp://blag.fsf.org/200000/source/SRPMS/b/

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Good Day,

In the coming week, I will release Alpha isos based on MATE and GNOME.
The kickstarts for these should allow me to develop one for XFCE and
LXDE with minimal changes, but I do not expect to have a working isos
for XFCE and LXDE until June.

I also have an itch to scratch with running BLAG on a raspberry Pi. I
tried Pidora and I'd like to challenge myself to develop an ARM
release based on XFCE.

Until the alphas are released.

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The initial release
-------------------

...the initial BLAG 200000 Pre-Alpha isos[0,1]. They serve as a
preview for the base applications for the next release of the MATE and GNOME Desktops. What you'll find are

*32-bit and 64-bit iso images under 700MB(with the exception of the 64-bit GNOME iso).

*Partial branding. Logos and other customization are in the works.

*Repository for blag setup upon install. Packages will be coming soon, but there are none to install as of yet.

Contribute your Feedback
------------------------

If you have the time to sign into the forums and post under the development[2] thread which has been setup for this topic, it will provide a means for everyone to participate.

If you're short on time, just reply to the respective mailing list and I'll see your feedback in either case. This release is designed as a community preview. BLAG is not dead, however our community is very dormant and I'm motivated to see you participate in any way you are capable.

I'm planning on refining packages to get the kickstarts to make the GNOME iso under 700MB. XFCE and LXDE isos will follow next month.

Things that Need Work
---------------------

In respect to branding, I'd like to find a new set of icons, backgrounds and other customization for the default, leaving the really little guys icons set that and branding as sets which have defined our previous releases. I'd like to see some newer contributions by the community, including suggestions for newer themes, logos and icons that are symbolic for the principles that define the distribution. I've been previewing different sets on Gnome Look[3] and Deviant Art[4], but in no way am I limiting myself to these.

The plans for the repository include using upstream packages as have been done in the past.

It's been about two months and this is a first step. In March, I setup up a few tickets in trac[5] to help determine where I had hoped we would be at. There is still much to be done and your support is appreciated.

[0]ftp://blag.fsf.org/200000/Live/i386/Pre-Alpha/
[1]ftp://blag.fsf.org/200000/Live/x86_64/Pre-Alpha/
[2]http://forums.blagblagblag.org/viewtopic.php?p=30341#30341
[3]http://gnome-look.org/
[4]http://www.deviantart.com/
[5]https://blag.fsf.org/ticket/30

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I'm downloading. Moving this week and may not get a chance to install for a few days, but I will soon and I will post my thoughts.

I've mostly moved my life over to debian since blag went dormant (with a stop at OS X on the way), but I'm really excited to see someone get a blag resurrection to a point we can actually download bits.

Hi. Blag user of old here, happy to see things moving again, nice work. I guess blag will always be loved!

I'll install 20000 tonight if I get chance, I've been using Fedora + Enlightenment 17 since I last ran blag a few years ago, my sandy bridge laptop is quite fiddly to set up under Linux so it'll be a good test.

All the best

Bob

Bob

Thanks for your letting us know. The repo for 200000 is currently under development and there will be no packages for you to install or update. You can expect that we'll have a repo up and running soon. I've released the pre-alpha to get feedback and to provide a means to demonstrate that we're working towards a final release.

Thank you,

Abdur-Rahman

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Greetings! I am posting from Blag 200000 pre-alpha. My reaction, other than it functions with typical fedora efficiency, is that it is now much like the fedora community mate release.
As Blag booted up I saw that the kernel was listed as a fedora 21 kernel. Could incorporating rawhide packages into the BLAG repo be used to further differentiate BLAG from fedora and act as a lure for fedora users that convert their installs into rawhide based installs?
Just my 2 cents worth.
Nice to see BLAG back.

Hi,

Thanks for the post from the Pre-Alpha. I just wanted to clarify that the kernel included is kernel-libre from the freed-ora repository and not the default f21 kernel. I'll need to adjust to pull from the repositories based on fedora 21. Thank you for catching that.

For future releases, I would like to see rawhide packages included in the blag repo for development and testing prior to the final release. I think having a solid base of people to test and improve on the rawhide packages is needed.

If you have any more ideas, I'd like to hear.

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...and i'm really impressed with it!

One thing i noticed when first booting the install was that instead of MATE it booted into FVWM, which threw me somewhat until i figured out how to reboot from a terminal!
After setting it to log in to MATE everything is spot-on so far - even my old laptop wi-fi is working!

System specs:

Toshiba Equium A210-171
AMD Turion 64 X2 processor
ATI Radeon (x1200) onboard graphics
2gb ram - 150gb hdd
Realtek Wireless

Nice one! (i'm running the 32bit version)

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Still running very nicely, though Midori is a bit bit crashy. Is stuff appearing in the repos, or is it just me now noticing it?(!) I'm seeing lots of Python and GTK stuff in there.

Whatever - keep it up please, it's great to see BLAG back!

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I like Midori but i'm not sure if it's ready for prime time yet either. Isn't iceweasel or palemoon available in Fedora repos ? I guess that would break the CD-size barrier though. -

Hy,

I've started working on the repos, but am still doing some testing, so at the current time you might see some failures as the content is updating. I expect to have them online in the coming week and will announce when they are officially up and running. For now, I'd try not to use them.

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I've completed the initial process of creating the BLAG repo, but I'm not ready to make an announcement on the forum or users mailing list because some testing is needed.

There has been very few changes from the directory structure aside from placing the repository name first and adding the Packages directory to blag and fedora. Additionally, I've just mirrored the freed-ora infrastructure as well.

For 200000 the packages are listed alphabetically, which eliminates some load time when viewing pages and comes in handy for auditing packages.

If you come across any non-free packages, please inform me, so that upon the next sync on Sunday, they will be removed.

Before, I close, I'll need you to download a new blag-release package from the blag-updates directory as I had a different structure in place that was to combine the blag, fedora and freed-ora directories, which is part of the process for moving towards re-building and branding the packages and eliminating ones that reference Fedora.

Moving forward, as the structure is set now, I'd like to re-build packages and move them to blag directory shortly thereafter. In order to do this, if you can respond to this message, if you can assist with scripting and packaging, I'd like to start this process once we have a group of people who are committed. I'm looking to start within a month and before the close of summer, completing the process. There are 32,379 packages, so the more help, the better we can divide the work.

I'll be working on building the LXDE and XFCE isos from the repos this weekend as well.

Please also let me know how the general feel for package downloads go. yum fastest-mirror was put on the pre-Alpha with the expectation that we will have several mirrors setup globally to provide the best download. Jaromil offered to help us and I plan on reaching out to him because he reached out in the past and I'd like our visibility to known among the other endorsed distros. If you have suggestions for other places that can help host a mirror, please put your suggestion out there.

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I have Blag and Blag-updates repos ticked (both 386).
What should i do to get the blag updates you mention?

Thanks,

Hy



refreshing gives me this

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